TUESDAY EVENING RUN UPDATE!!!!

Tuesday, January 27 run statistics:

 

I didn’t run.

 

Haha…  fooled you.

 

Yea, the kiddo is sicko, so I didn’t make my way out of doors last night.  Plus it was too dark/cold/hot/bright/humid/dry/rainy/fat for me to do any running at all, really.  Plus, the werewolves and killer pandas and dive bombing pigeons were just too much.

 

On the other hand, I wasted a considerable amount of time on facebook.  I’m coming to grudgingly accept that it’s not a complete waste of time (I was able to catch up to a bunch of old high school friends and cousins), but it is very nearly a complete waste of time.  There’s this game, Mafia Wars, that’s kind of fun, too.

 

Class tonight, no running.  Tomorrow, though, there is a very high likelihood that I’ll get a run in—maybe even 2 whole miles.  There’s that 5k in Conroe this weekend that K referred me to (Thanks, K.  Thanks a bunch.) that I might run.  It’s for a good cause and not at a ridiculous hour.  I may actually be able to wake up, drive there, and actually make the post time.

 

I’m so glad the election is over.

Ok, ok... I have a really good excuse this time

You see, what had happened was…

 

It was like this…

 

On Friday there was this…

 

Uhhhh…

 

Ok, I overslept.  Simple as that.  The sun rose, I did not.  Next thing I know, it’s 8:30 and I’m slowly lifting my head thinking “two and a half hours to 6 o’ clock”.  Of course, time doesn’t run backwards and I had missed the opening bell and gun and pinkie swore and promised that I’d get out and run later that afternoon.

 

I have a good excuse for not doing that run, too.  I forgot.

 

Then I swore I’d run on Sunday just to have a time to post.

 

I didn’t.

 

So, I SWEAR I’ll run tomorrow night (tonight is class, so no running tonight).  For sure.  No excuses.

 

Unless aliens abduct me or werewolves attack or something.

 

But I DID get the rest of my seeds in the ground, watered the garden, planted the flowering pest control plants, turned the compost (I so DESPERATELY NEED green materials to add), made some very, very bad bread, and finished making that gumbo I’ve been waiting to tear into for about a week.  All in all, a very, very productive and relaxing weekend.

 

Besides, I still have time to train for that Rodeo run (even if registration gets more expensive in 2 weeks).  Those 6 miles will be my opening salvo across the bow of the 2010 marathon.  2010 is going to be a big year—marathon, MBA, uh…  other stuff (maybe).  Hey, I’ll be completing 2 marathons in the same year (with the MBA counting as one, come on, people, keep up!).

Here's an idea for Gitmo detainees

Ok, the long overdue closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility is upon us.  The problem that has lingered still lingers:  what to do with these turds.  They’re not, technically, prisoners of war.  They’re not, technically, foreign nationals.  They’re not, technically criminals (wanting to do bad things to the US isn’t, as far as I know, criminal, only ACTUALLY doing bad things, but that’s another conversation).

 

Their home countries don’t want them.  They wouldn’t live very long in our general prison population and we wouldn’t want them to live long enough to make our run of the mill criminals into deadly domestic terrorists (because, you know, that’s what would happen, I suppose).

 

So, here’s my idea.  Bring them to the front gates of Gitmo, give them $50 and a carton of smokes, and tell them they’re free to go.  Just let them go.  Give them to Cuba.  Sayonara, auf frietesen, and good bye.

 

Of course, they’d still have to navigate the extremely heavily mined corridor between the naval base and open Cuban fields.  And then they’d have to explain why they’re in Cuba—in Spanish, even though most don’t espeaka dat language.  But, hey, they’d be Cuba’s problem then.  And that way everyone wins!

Yea, that was a run

Ok, so I finally got out and ran.

 

My chrono is dead, so I went nude.  Just me and the pavement out there.

 

I took my usual 1 mile loop and managed to run it non-stop—a feat I was barely able to accomplish at any point last year.  Odd, I feel like I’m in the worst shape of my life, and yet I was able to run a fairly decent, pain free mile.

 

Saturday will be the RTW, assuming nothing horrid happens between now and then.

 

Or, knowing me, even something mildly unexpected.

 

I did notice that my stride length tends to shorten up if I’m not paying close attention.  I’ll start chopping my stride and taking these little baby steps while I’m running.  When I notice I consciously start to lengthen my stride and guess what happens…  YUP!  My pace picks up, my breathing gets more measured, and I think my heart race drops ever so slightly.  Those things add up to a marginally easier (albeit still unpleasant) run.

 

Rodeo Run is on February 28, I think.  Registration gets more expensive after the 7^th.  We shall see what the week brings and I’ll decide on that one later.

Brokaw comment

Very interesting comment from Tom Brokaw just a few minutes ago…

 

He said that when he was born in the 40s, there were people still alive who bore witness to the carnage of Gettysburg and the Civil War.  In what is effectively 2 lifetimes we’ve seen how far history can march.

 

I’ve never looked at it quite like that.  140 years seems like so long ago…  but 2 lifetimes is precisely that—140 years.

 

Interesting.

Reason enough to get married

Ok, I’m right about 60% sure I’ll be running in the Woodlands this weekend.  I want to get out tonight and go a mile or so just to see how the old pegs feel.

This could be interesting.

 

 

I did something a little different and listened to 104 on the way to work because they were playing a decent song when I flipped over the channel.  When the talk hosts come on the discussion is about some chick who left a message about how guys were idiots because she went out on a third date with a dude and they were both “feeling it” and she wasn’t sure where things were going yet but he pulls a condom out of his wallet.  I suppose he pulled it out with this look on his face like “hey baby, I’m ready if you’re willing” and a stupid/sly guy grin on his face.  She got pissed that he was so presumptuous and I’m sure he was pissed that she was pissed that he was prepared.  Needless to say she pulled her panties back on and the “date” was over.

 

This is the type of shit that I got so tired of when dating that I was actually YEARNING for the cold clasp of marriage to …  just kidding.  This is the type of shit that had me fed up with the whole dating game and really looking forward to settling down and being married.

 

Girls want to get the guys all lathered up so that they’re just falling all over themselves to put their little pee-pees inside them, but they don’t want the boys to put their pee-pees inside them.  So they get all tarted up with the makeup, short skirts, extensions, push up bras, high heels, and thongs (no hose, too much of a barrier to entry!) and act like they just might so that the boys will show their tail feathers and strut around them and fawn attention on them.

 

Boys want the girls to think they’re smart and caring and wealthy and strong.  So they act like they give a shit about the insipid and stupid garbage they’re spewing about their makeup or books or movies or politics or the economy (because, you know, they want the boys to be interested in their MINDS which is why they wear the Victoria Secrets Brain Hats to clubs).  They act like they are concerned about their feelings.  They act like they want to buy them dinner, then act like they can afford dinner.

 

So, girls act like sluts and boys act like they care, but both are merely acting and the game goes on and on.  The girls get pissed when the boys acknowledge the game is afoot.  Boys get pissed when girls acknowledge they’re the gatekeepers of the honey pot.

 

It took me awhile to get tired of the game.  From an academic perspective, it’s interesting to study.  From a practical perspective, it’s much easier to just get married and quit acting.

What a run

Wow.

 

I’ve only begun to check in to see how the fellow running bloggers and other associated running types did today.

 

So…  to satisfy the less than sane portion of my mind…

 

When’s registration for 2010 open up?

A new discovery

I was flipping channels a few days back and came across an interesting show title:  Nasty Yoga.

 

Ok, you have my attention.

 

Turns out it’s Namaste Yoga, which is something ENTIRELY different than what I thought I had seen.  Nonetheless, I found myself watching for almost 5 full minutes.  It’s similar to the Nature Show Trance, but I think this Work Out Show Trance is more unique to guys.

 

It’s a typical workout show—three super hot chicks stretching and doing whatever they do in spandex—centered around Yoga.  I had never seen yoga in action for any length of time being performed by actual yoga people, only fat chicks at the YMCA, so this was somewhat interesting.  Plus, after this particular portion of the show the girls’ hair was all a mess, their faces were a little flush, and there was the slightest hint of rushing endorphins—the total soft-porn workout package.

 

The movements were measured, repetitive, and very balanced.  Each movement looked like it took a tremendous amount of flexibility, but also muscle control and strength.  And it was nothing particularly astonishing, either.  Stretch your arms up high, bend at the waist and touch the ground, walk your hands forward (downward dog), down to your knees, lift one leg way high (ok, that, coming on the heels of “downward dog” sounds funny as shit), then upward dog (which is basically you back bent inward while you’re resting on your hands or elbows), then reverse it out by walking your hands back to the downward dog position and finally upright.  Very simple, very measured.

 

So, a couple of days later I tried at least part of the positions I saw and discovered that I have a tremendous amount of tension right in the center of my UPPER back.  Not the lower back, like I’d have expected, but the upper.  As soon as that particular knot is stretched out, I might take a greater interest in yoga.  I hear it’s excellent for maintaining flexibility for both bikers and runners, and, as I understand it, a lot of back pain can be linked to poor flexibility rather than musculo-skeletal problems.

Rodeo Run

I have almost 100% committed to running the Rodeo Run in March.  Maybe I’ll show up on time this year and actually get a chip.

 

Meanwhile, I’ve ordered our pre-frost free seeds for the garden.  It’s about damn time we’ve started having normal January weather around here.

We almost ordered some seed potatoes from a farm in Washington, but instead we’re going to try and grow some from store-bought tubers (against ALL of the advice we’ve received).  I planted one last fall to see what would happen, and sure enough a big leafy top sprouted from the ground.  Then there was a hurricane.  Then there was a dead potato plant.

So, later this month we’re going to plant 2 separate varieties (about a dozen plantings) and see what happens.  They’re already sprouting eyes, so all that’s needed is to cut them, dry them, then plant them.  About two months later…  about a month after the tomatoes are in the ground, we should have a big mess of potatoes to eat.

 

MMmmm…  mashed potatoes, potato hash, potato stew, potato bread, potato pudding, potato paddies, ‘tater dumpling, ‘tater fries, ‘tater chips, ‘tater rings, chicken fried ‘taters, basted ‘taters, butter baked ‘taters…  the list really could go on and on.  Just ask the Irish.

No go on the RTW

This weekend I have to be back on the homestead at about 9:00am Saturday morning.  That’s going to put undue pressure on any trip to the Woodlands for the first RTW of the year.

HOWEVER…  there will be another 2 weeks following, and I have absolutely no plans for that weekend (as of yet).  So, I’m going to look forward (as in directional, not emotional) to hitting that RTW.  Besides, it’ll give me a little bit of time to make sure my socks are clean and stuff.

 

Here’s a little tidbit about me:  I like to garden.  Not flower garden, but veggie garden.  I really can’t stand flower gardening.  Seems like a lot of work just for decoration.  But veggie gardens actually produce stuff.  That’s pretty cool.

 

We have an adequate sized garden.  Last year it threw out over 6 pounds of green and yellow beans.  We ate about ½ and the other ½ was spoiled by Ike.  This year I’m hoping to double that production by increasing the area we’re going to put to beans.  We also have a fig tree and blackberry patch.  The total size is about 40 square feet.  The blackberries and fig tree take up about 1/3 of the whole garden, and next summer those guys will be providing some very, very yummy fruit.  I can hardly wait.  I’ve never had either a fig or blackberry fresh off the plant.

 

Saturday or Sunday afternoon I’ll be ripping out some dormant zucchini squash and pumpkin plants and preparing my garden for the first round of crops—potatoes, carrots, and a host of leafy greens.  I expect those will be ready for harvest and rotation in about 2 months when I can start on the beans, lettuces, cucumbers, tomatoes, and summer squashes.  The spring/summer garden is so much more productive than the winter garden (for obvious reasons).  I’m SO looking forward to this year’s garden. 

 

If we can get a good carrot, bean, and potato crop out of the garden, we’ll hardly have to buy any veggies from the store.  Those three staples make up about 75% of our total veggie consumption.  All the rest of the stuff is pretty much garnish on our fruit basket.

Here's a catch 22 for you

Happy New Year!!!  (blow noise maker, throw confetti, kiss random stranger ‘cause it’s New Year’s and that makes it ok and what better way to start the year other than random, albeit mild, fornication)

 

My calendar shows the first Run the Woodlands run of the year to be January 10, 2009.  Might be a good time for me to take a baseline and determine what would be needed to take a shot at my first ever second marathon.  I’m only taking 6 classes between now and then.  What the hell, right?

 

Speaking of classes, one of the assignments last semester was reading the absolutely dreadful book “The Earth Is Flat” by Tom Friedman.  Tom is a great columnist, but his book was exceptionally hard to read in no small part because he regularly takes 200 words to state something that can easily be stated in 50.  His follow up book is “Hot, Flat, and Crowded”, a book which I decided to be a gamer and take a shot at reading despite the dreadfulness of his other tome and I wasn’t disappointed.  The first 100 pages or so were just as dreadful as the previous book, so I put it down.  Eventually I’ll get back to it, I suspect.

 

I took 3 things away from the first 100 pages of that book:  1. I am not nearly embarrassed of my country as Mr. Friedman, 2. Very few people look at the bad parts of the amazing technological explosions that have happened over the last 20 years or so, and 3. Nobody considers the consequences of correcting the climate change (or, as I prefer to consider it, pollution) issue.

 

1.        Not much comment needed on that one.  Yes, we have image problems.  Yes, there’s a communication problem.  Yes, better ideas are needed to address security infrastructure while maintaining open doors.  Yes, it’s better to import students and not be so quick to deport people and better ideas are needed on the immigration front.  But no, I don’t think we’re any worse at it than anyone else, we just do it more.  Take any nation and have it trade places with the US and that nation will have the very same issues.

2.       Yes, technology has brought is all closer, but it has also increased the degree to which the haves are separated from the have nots.  For a graphic depiction, imagine a triangle.  The have nots are on bottom and the haves are on top, the degree of separation is the angle on the base.  Shorten the base (that is, bring everyone close) and the angle gets wider, approaching the maximum of 90 degrees.  It’s not that the top is any further from the bottom, it’s just the degree of separation is greater.  Simplistic, yes.  Accurate, maybe.  But for all the good and bringing people closer, technology also serves to keep them apart.

3.       Climate change is a very real thing whether it is man made or not.  I’m not completely convinced that global climate change is man made, but I am thoroughly convinced that dumping crap into the atmosphere on a daily basis has a detrimental effect on the environment.  One only needs to drive through Pasadena, TX with the windows down to know, without a question, that the shit being pumped into the atmosphere is foul (for those who don’t know, Pasadena is home to most of the refineries in the Houston area and when you drive through, you smell them and they’re foul).  I have no doubt that man’s war on the environment in order to supply water, food, and energy to growing urban centers is bad for the environment and bad for our own physical, mental, and spiritual health.  The crisis crowd will have you believe that continuing on the path we’re on will lead to global catastrophe causing untold death and destruction is we don’t ACT NOW to clean up our act.  The earth simply cannot sustain a growing population with growing pollution that comes with it.  Disease, plague, famine and widespread death will wipe out large percentages of the population around the globe.

Ok, but what if we FIX the pollution problem and arrest global climate change.  Won’t that lead to better living conditions for all around the globe leading to an even GREATER population boom?  Won’t the ensuing population boom lead to ever denser population concentrations which will, in turn, lead to greater stress on the global environment and, consequently, even greater potential for mass disease, plague, famine, and widespread global death? 

Effectively, isn’t the cure as potentially catastrophic as the disease to begin with?  And, if man is the cause of global climate change, and the consequence of global climate change is a significant percentage drop in the global population of man, then isn’t everything going to right itself in the long run, anyway?  I don’t disagree that we should clean up our act just as a matter of principle.  But to think that cleaning up our act will solve anything, when we are, ultimately, the problem to begin with is pure foolishness.